The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has dismissed reports claiming that he once carried a placard in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking during the church’s November Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, Adeboye said a photograph circulating online that showed him holding a placard was taken during a prayer walk in 2020, five years after Jonathan left office in May 2015.
“Recently, just one mischievous somebody wrote in the papers, or said somehow, ‘Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan.’ Everybody said yes, and they brought out the picture of me dressed in white and green, carrying a placard,” Adeboye recounted.
He acknowledged carrying the placard but insisted the activity was not a political protest.
“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray. The CAN chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did in Ebute Metta. A walk is a walk, whether prayer walk or not. I did it because the CAN President said do so,” he explained.
Adeboye stressed the timing of the event: “But I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard five years in the second term of Buhari, but it was twisted that I did what I did in 2015 and everybody swallowed it.”
The photograph in question shows Adeboye holding a placard with the inscription “All Souls Are Precious to God.” The prayer walk took place on February 2, 2020, in Lagos during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari. It was organised in response to a directive from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) calling on churches to hold peaceful walks to pray against insecurity and k!llings across the country.
The procession began at the RCCG national headquarters in Ebute Metta, proceeded towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba, and returned to the church.
Adeboye criticised the journalist who linked the image to Jonathan’s tenure, saying the report presented the exercise out of context without verifying the date or purpose. He maintained that he has never protested against any government and that his role is to pray for those in authority.
The clarification comes amid renewed circulation of the old photograph on social media and in some media reports.
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